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MIVVA August box: Flower Power

So my flowery birthday present came in the mail today, and I think I’ve developed a new crush on a beauty box!

My heart always indiscriminately flutters at the sight of any Poslaju van. No, seriously. To me the sight is like a very good omen, and I’ve been programmed to associate it with very good feelings. The nice Poslaju man always brings around the best goodies with his patient (alright, perhaps sometimes impatient) honking.

The anticipation was made sweeter because it’s my birthday month, which basically means 31 days of joy! You can imagine how fast I ripped open the Poslaju carrier.

Bubble wrap! Another packaging fetish of mine. I’ve folded it neatly and set it aside. Treating myself to some alone time popping bubble wrap once I’m done writing this post, LOL.

As far as simple shoebox-like boxes go, this was actually really nice! Paintbrush polka dots reminiscent of Topshop’s makeup (albeit its negative) in reflective silver set against matte black.

Opened the box to a strong whiff of floral scent and found these two laid on top of the products. Talk about full experience. I wondered for a second, did they spray perfume in every box?? Loving the Flower Power handout, the design is modern and pretty. And Flower Power, of all the themes? It’s perfect for me, especially the past few weeks – I’ve been so obsessed with flowers, if you can’t already tell by my previous flower-bombed photos, hahaha.

Having never received a MIVVA box before, I thought the small black card is another component to the monthly box, perhaps a small product price and availability list? Boy, I’ve never been more glad to be wrong about a beauty box!

Squeeeeeeal! ♡.♡

My jaw dropped when I saw F cup cookies in the box. “FOOD?!” I gasped. It just seemed so unreal to find cookies in a beauty box. Not that I’ve been living under a rock all these years and don’t know what those cookies promise to do, but hey food is food is food when you’re fasting. LOL.

All the pretties lined up for your viewing pleasure.

Tsubaki Damage Care Shampoo & Conditioner 40ml

Made especially for dry, permed, sun-damaged, color-treated and coarse hair, Shiseido’s new Golden Repair line is an everyday solution for healing and maintaining healthy hair. The hair enriching nutrients in camellia oil in a luscious thick conditioner that heals brittle hair, split ends and dryness. The Tsubaki, or Camellia flower, is packed with oleic acids that are extremely compatible with human skin. Amino acids help strengthen hair from the follicle.

Tsubaki! We meet again! After what, 5 years? I remember when Tsubaki was making waves in our shores. The red bottles sold like hotcakes. But oh, how good it smelled. And it really worked to give shiny tresses. If I’m not mistaken the red one was the Shining range? This being the Damage Care, I have even higher hopes for it. And I suppose now my hair is in need of the damage care line All that chemical work – perming and highlighting. Can’t wait to try this! If it works I might get the full size – the price is soo much cheaper than what it was back then! We were all crawling on the LYN forums for cheap deals on the Tsubaki line for a reason.

Full size: RM16.90 for 220ml | RM33.90 for 550ml

Value: RM3.07 for 40ml | RM2.47 for 40ml

Di Palomo Orange Blossom with Wild Honey & Olive Hand & Body Lotion

Used this immediately! The scent is so refreshing although for some reason it smells like a man to me. A very metrosexual man that smells good in a floral woodsy way? I’m not one to use lotions – although I’m more likely to use hand lotion vs body lotion, so I don’t have much basis for comparison besides Crabtree & Evelyn and Marks & Spencer and L’Occitane. Actually those 3 should be enough. They’re a lot thicker and richer than Di Palomo’s, which also meant they took longer to absorb. But this lotion barely leaves any traces other than the slightest sheen on my palms, and it’s a lot less fuss since it’s less rich and absorbs quicker. I found myself reaching for this and reapplying so many times. This could be habit-forming! I wish we got the Orange Blossom Dry Oil instead though :S

I’ve never gotten eye drops in beauty boxes before, so this was particularly refreshing (pardon the pun). I do suffer from dry eyes occasionally but I rarely head to the pharmacy to get anything for it just because I can’t be bothered to make the effort. In fact I’ve ceased using my contact lenses because of the dry discomfort even though it’s imperative that I do since I’m half blind without them. Yeah, I’ve been going out to shopping malls and squinting at all the mall-goers. So thanks MIVVA for being a mind-reader. These are contact lens safe, hooray. And I have to say the dropper bottle design is particularly cute.

Remember the expiry date printed on the bottle isn’t how long you can use it for. You need to dispose of it after 30 days of opening (not 30 days of use!) so make sure you write down the date you opened the bottle with a marker, or better yet just write the date by which you should toss it. Don’t expect you’ll be able to commit to memory when you started using the eye drops, you likely won’t. Better be safe than sorry 😀 Make sure you don’t touch the tip of the dropper to your eyes or fingers either. You don’t want to contaminate a solution that you want to put on your precious eyes!

Full size: RM18.80 (WM) for 10ml | RM19.80 (EM) for 10ml

Value: RM18.80 (WM) for 10ml | RM19.80 (EM) for 10ml

F Cup Cookies

“Foooood!” My brain persistently screams at me. “Grabbbit, food!” Breathe, Sabrina – it’s your last day of fasting. I think precisely because it’s my last day that my appetite has skyrocketed. Seriously, I don’t even like cookies unless it’s covered in chocolate. I just keep thinking of Raya feast – endless Raya feasts. An assortment of the best food you can find in the entire year, piled in heaps in each house you go to! Really, it wouldn’t be so bad if they’re not so exclusive – 97% of the food I only eat during the festivities each year, and the other 3% is the rolled oat cookies we make. My stomach stubbornly beckons for food to come inside it. There’s a serious disconnect between my rational brain and my appetite, LOL!

They included two flavors, chocolate and either Soymilk or Berry – I’m not sure which, it doesn’t say on the packaging. I’m assuming Soymilk since it’s the original. A lot of people have said that they lost weight while consuming this and kept the weight off too. Have you tried it? There’s a RM20 cash voucher included in the box for TokyoNinki which sells the F cup cookies among other things. (Btw, there’s also RM10 voucher for purchase of Worthy Book in the box and Dermedex voucher too)

Full size: RM78.90 for 14 sticks

Value: RM11.27 for 2 sticks

Dermedex Refining Cream 2 Challenge Pack

Dermedex is used in over 1000 salons worldwide. Challenging me to clearer skin in 3 days? Challenge accepted as it’s only 3 days of deviating from my usual skincare. Dermedex is apparently specially formulated for Asian skin and combines East and West cosmetics technology. The pack includes two products made for all skin types:

What intrigues me about this is the directions: “For better results, leave it on your face for 15 to 30 minutes before rinsing. You may even use it as an overnight mask.” A cleanser that you leave on for half an hour? A cleanser that doubles as an overnight mask??

MIVVA is known to include special extras each month to add to the experience of the month’s theme. Isn’t that wonderful?

Very affordable at RM38/month. I definitely recommend subscribing to the biannual subscription – the price will still be RM38, but you get free shipping (it’s RM10 otherwise) and you get the most points. If you’re a very cautious person and you’re worried you won’t like the box, I still say go for the quarterly subscription at RM114 for 3 months. You’d pay RM48 if you want to try it for just a month, and 2 months would take you to nearly RM100 anyway. Plus with MIVVA’s excellent track record, you can have peace of mind that whatever they bring you each month will be awesome.

Of course like I mentioned they have a points system, which is a fabulous reward. That’s why I’m urging you to get the 6-month sub! To redeem 1 box, you need 380 points. And yes, the 6-month sub is basically giving you 7 months of goodies, with some points to spare. That brings it down to about RM32 per box even if you don’t bother to collect points to redeem more boxes.

But earning points is super easy anyway. For example each product you review gives you 10 points – you just have to leave your short feedback on the beauty wall. So that’s easily 60 points per month. And if you own a blog, just write a post and that gives you another 50 points. That’s 110 points per month, ladies. Within 6 months you’ll have 660 + 400 = 1060 points. Two boxes FOC, with 300 points leftover – that’s nearly RM25 per box only. Just repeat the cycle and keep getting free boxes for little effort and little investment. I have the game plan down to pat, LOL! It’s the obsessive bargain hunting girl in me 😉

Yes, I have a crush on MIVVA now, and I’m so excited to see the boxes they have for us in the coming months!

GIVING AWAY – JUST COMMENT IF YOU WANT THESEI’m giving up the F cup cookies since I won’t use them and it’s a shame to waste. I’m including NYX Mega Shine Lip Gloss in Perfect (LG155) too because I recently hauled 2 of them and I just found 2 new ones that I hauled and lost last semester. Brand new, unopened. I obviously love them, but can’t possibly use up all 4 to death. I’ll include all the vouchers from this box too. If you want them just leave me a comment and I’ll have them sent to you after Raya

ETA:I really didn’t realize that I’ve been away for nearly a month now! Time flew by so fast! I notice that I’ve only replied to half of the comments before falling off the radar, so sorry – shall rectify that soon.

The lucky lady is commenter #18, Angelina!

Shoot me an email with your shipping details to vixenvine@gmail.com and I’ll send it out to you wherever you are

It’s worrying when you say you saw them at the night market! Those places are usually laden with fakes. :S It’s always a better bet to shop at the physical store in this country than to risk it They’re still quite affordable (well, not exorbitant like in Australia at least)

I just want to wish you Happy Birthday & Selamat Hari Raya too! Lots to celebrate. I love your very festively-styled post today. Very fitting.

Hmm…F-Cup Cookies. I’m a bit of a baker and could probably whip you up a few of my own cookies that could give you some results to rival F-Cup here. I’m super generous with butter so I daresay my baking would let you see results in only a couple of days. I also find that my cookies go that one step further by giving freebie gains in the tummy and thighs too 😛

So, no F-Cups for me, Sabrina, I shall just bake my own ‘cups’ 😉

About Mivva, I got one box from them when they were still doing the single month/ free shipping deal and didn’t continue because of the shipping. I wasn’t ready to commit yet at that point and the shipping was a deal-breaker. I’m still going to keep my eye on them…there’s redemption left in them yet! If they’d only just throw in some La Mer then all will be forgiven.

I’m not sure about this box though. The combo of breast-enlarging cookies, rose-scented closet freshener and eye drops is a little eclectic. These beauty boxes are really starting to think outside of the box (excuse the pun) which is great but some combos can be weird. I like your Dermedex sample – anything, ANYTHING which promises clearer skin has my vote. Anyway, I hear that Tsubaki is good for washing makeup brushes. Was it Bun Bun that said that? Don’t you just love Bun Bun?! I feel so sorry for her though. I hope she’s okay. Your open letter to her was great and took the words from my mouth.

As always, love reading everything you have to say about anything because your writing skills . –Although I wish there was your face somewhere in this review because I like staring at it, you are beautiful !

I love how you’ve worked out a “system” already on how to get the most out of those points . I always thought points are pointless because I won’t actually get enough to redeem, but after reading that, I really want to try ! After my subscription is up with the other beauty box of course . Not now .

AND Happy birthday girl !! How was your Raya ? You should do a picture-heavy post on your Raya, I’d love to see it because I don’t celebrate ! The food sounds so good !